US Housing on the Rise: April Numbers

Builders increased construction of single and multi-family homes in April which made U.S. housing starts rise more than anticipated.
The Commerce Department reported on Tuesday that groundbreaking had increased 6.6% to an adjusted annual pace of 1.17 million units. For comparison, economists had predicted housing starts to be at a 1.13 million unit pace for last month.
This combined with strong April retail sales supports the view that the economy is gaining momentum early on in the second quarter after a slow first. The strong labor market is opening up more employment opportunities which is sustaining the housing market by boosting household formation.

The Stats:
The largest segment of the market is single family housing.
Overall, this increased 3.3% in April to a 778,000 unit pace.
Single family housing starts in the South soared 9% which is the highest since December 2007.
Single family housing starts in the Midwest jumped 12.8%.
Housing starts for multi-family units rose 13.9%, up to a 394,000 unit pace.

In April building permits jumped 3.6%, a 1.12 million unit rate.
Single family home construction permits strengthened by 1.5%, and multi-family building permits were up by an astounding 8%.